


the people who love him

by maddy_does (favefangirl)



Series: carry on countdown 2020 [1]
Category: Carry On Series - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Birthday Fluff, Canon Compliant, Carry On Countdown 2020 (Simon Snow), Fluff, Found Family, M/M, mentions of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-25
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:13:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27710510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/favefangirl/pseuds/maddy_does
Summary: Simon is perfectly happy not to celebrate his birthday. His friends have other ideas.
Relationships: Tyrannus Basilton "Baz" Pitch/Simon Snow
Series: carry on countdown 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2026733
Comments: 6
Kudos: 35
Collections: Carry On Countdown 2020





	the people who love him

**Author's Note:**

> Carry On Countdown Day 1, NOV 25: Found Family.

Simon had woken up early that morning. He’d tossed and turned in bed for what felt like hours before he decided to give up on getting back to sleep. Instead, he got up to go make breakfast - toast loaded with excessive amounts of Lurpak. He stretched as he walked from his bedroom to the kitchen, the joints in his arms and back cracking as he went in a way that felt all too satisfying. The kitchen had still been a mess from the night before with plates in the sink and the pizza box sat by the bin ready to be taken out. Penny had been busy with work and Simon hadn’t felt like cooking.

He ignored it as he went about making his toast, grabbing the toaster down from the cupboard with the dodgy door after Shepard’s botched diy job, the bread from the bread bin Penny had found at a car boot sale when she was doing research on Normals for her mum, and the butter out of the fridge. Simon and Penny didn’t usually buy this brand because it was unreasonably expensive, but Baz had topped up their groceries last week, and he was nothing if not pretentious about food. 

As he was waiting for his toast to cook he felt his phone vibrating in the pocket of his joggers. He got it out and saw a text from Penny:

_ Library all day. See you tonight. _

Simon knew she was working on her dissertation, a piece on astronomy. He’d been calling it astrology for weeks until Baz corrected him with a shake of his head. Simon honestly didn’t know the difference. He did know that a library day meant he wouldn’t see Penny until at least ten. The library technically closed at nine, but Penny would hide out up on the sixth floor so the librarian wouldn’t be able to find her. Simon sometimes wondered how she hadn’t yet been arrested.

He made his toast and buttered it until no more would soak into the bread. He then took breakfast into the living room and turned on the TV to watch the news. It had been something Shepard had recommended, a way to keep up with the Normal world, even as he lived with a mage and dated a vampire. It wasn’t always easy watching - the Normals were incredibly depressing, always trying to kill each other, starve each other, or control each other’s lives.

Simon wasn’t really paying attention that morning, mainly scrolling through his phone. Mobiles had been banned at Watford, and the one the Mage had given him to keep contact when he was a kid had been robbed by an older boy at one of the care homes he lived in growing up. Baz teased him mercilessly at first as he tried to teach him how to use the iPhone he’d bought him. (Simon had protested, knowing how expensive they were, but Baz had just rolled his eyes and said to thank his father, whatever that meant.) It also meant that he’d never gotten a feed full of happy birthday messages. Shepard said this was a common thing in the Normal world, but not to worry too much because he’d never had one either.

Still, sometimes his birthday would fall on one of the last days at Watford, and if he’d managed to make it through the year without burning down the school, or getting himself killed, or ending up in the nurses’ office as they tried to patch up his wounds, he’d generally spend the days roaming the grounds being all but harassed by students wishing him well. Sometimes they would make jokes about him being old, or how had he survived another year, and sometimes they were even funny. 

Still, he’d preferred the last two years with Penny, Baz, and a cake in their living room. He wasn’t mad about this year, though. Penny was finishing her final year of her four year degree, and barely had time to breathe with all the work she had to do. He knew Baz was really busy, too, getting started on his Classics grad course. His tutor was a cantankerous old git and always set far too much work to be done in far too little time. Shepard probably didn’t even know it was his birthday. Agatha was all the way in California, and she was really busy setting up a small business with her girlfriend in floral arrangements.

Simon wasn’t even really all that bothered that there was no big celebration. He hated being the centre of attention, hated feeling like he had to be performatively happy because all scrutinizing eyes were on him and would see if he wasn’t. He had just about gotten back to a good place mentally, thanks in no small part to going back to his therapist and getting some breathing techniques from Shepard. He and Baz were in a good place, too, though some days still felt precarious. Still, he didn’t need them dissecting his mental state over cake and balloons. 

It was his day off work at the local supermarket. He always felt dumb working a till while Penny was revolutionising the stars, and Baz was ‘shaking the foundations of Latin as we know it’. Even Shepard was doing something exciting, working with Penny’s mum as a kind of envoy between the Normal world and the World of Mages. Still, London rent wasn’t cheap and they had bills to pay, not that Baz didn’t remind him regularly that he would contribute, Simon need only say the word.

Bougie butter was one thing, paying his rent was something entirely different. In many ways that was worse than the job thing, the fact that Baz had so much more money than them and was not shy in spending it. At Christmas Simon always felt cheap compared to Baz. Just last year Baz had bought him fencing lessons at a local class because he’d mentioned how much he missed his sword sometimes. He’d given Baz a second-hand book on Latin proverbs that Penny later informed him had been on their Watford reading list, so Baz had probably read it when he was a kid.

Baz was always better at gift-giving though. He’d bought Penny an expensive microscope so she could work on her dissertation at home, and had sent Agatha her own body weight in English snacks. He’d even managed to arrange a consultation for Shepard with an exclusive curse specialist from Venice. It had been to no avail, but Shepard still hadn’t stopped saying how grateful he was.

Simon tried not to let things like that bother him, things like how well Baz knew everyone. Simon just wasn’t that good at knowing people. It had always been an uphill struggle for him, it’s why he’d never really had friends growing up. Even at Watford most people were only friends with him because he was the chosen one. Also because, according to Penny at least, he was ‘pleasant’, whatever that meant.

Still, he always felt shitty come birthdays or Christmas when the best he could do was offer chocolates and a card. (This was even more of an issue after Shepard went vegan because he wanted to save bears or something, Simon wasn’t really sure, but apparently it meant chocolate was a no?) Not that Baz ever seemed to mind. He’d always be extra soft whenever Simon gave him his presents. He’d hold his hand and not quite manage to stifle a smile which Simon thought was adorable.

His day off work meant he was free to do as he pleased, and generally that meant pottering around in the flat. He liked to clean. He found it relaxing, and would often turn on a playlist - generally one that Shepard had made for him - and blitz the flat. It never really got dirty because Penny and Baz were neurotic about mess, and he would always clean before bed or he couldn't get to sleep, but a day off meant bleach and yellow gloves. 

He was done by mid-afternoon, and sat watching the news again, mainly playing a crappy mobile game and not paying attention when he received a text. It was from Baz, asking him to go out and grab some groceries for him. Simon immediately found this odd; Baz never asked him to buy anything. Usually it was Simon having a go at him for buying things Simon could’ve gotten himself. Still, Baz asking must’ve meant he really needed it, so he dragged himself off the sofa to get dressed before going out to the supermarket.

He felt silly, buying vegetables from Tesco for Baz when he knew Baz shopped exclusively at Waitrose and M & S. He just couldn’t afford those kinds of prices, as much as he wanted to do something nice for Baz. It took longer than he thought for him to get everything because some of the things on the list he’d never even heard of before (quinoa? falafel?) but he finally got everything and left. 

He was almost home when he got another text, this time from Penny, asking him to pick up some printer paper today. He knew Penny was pedantic about her stationary, but didn’t want to be rude when she’d bought the last three lots and hadn’t complained about him using it. So, he changed direction and headed for the nearest Wilko to get the paper. 

On his way back home he half expected a text from Shepard asking him to buy toilet paper or something, but he managed to make it back to the flat without any more interruptions. By this point it was pretty late in the day, and Simon thought about maybe cooking some dinner, something Penny could just heat up when she got back from the library. He had just settled on pasta as he opened the door when he heard a cry of, “SURPRISE!”

Simon staggered back a couple of steps, and when he finally processed what he was looking at, Baz, Penny and Shepard were all stood in front of him wearing party hats. There was a cake on the table, banners on the walls and balloons haphazardly on the floor. Next to the cake, Penny’s laptop was open and grinning through the screen was Agatha, the tops of Lucy’s ears just showing on the camera. Simon gasped at all the people he loved here, in his kitchen (almost), to celebrate his birthday.

“What- I-”

“You didn’t think we’d forget did you?” Baz asked, coming forward to take the shopping bags from his hands and place a kiss to his cheek. 

He moved to put the shopping away and Penny came towards him holding a party hat. “We’ve been planning this all week!”

“Hi Simon!” Agatha said through the laptop, just in case Simon hadn’t realised she was here. Lucy barked as though she were greeting him, too.

“C’mon,” Shepard said as Penny ushered him forward. “You’ve gotta blow out the candles, birthday boy.”

Simon did as he was told, walking over to the cake as Shepard lit the candles on top - one for every year. Baz came up behind him and placed an arm around his waist. “Shepard made it himself. It’s vegan. Just pretend to like it,” Baz said into his ear, and Simon could hear the grin without having to look around. 

Shepard finished lighting the candles as Penny turned the laptop so Agatha could see what was going on. “You’ve gotta make a wish, alright?” Shepard said as he stepped away from the cake.

As Simon looked around at these crazy people in their terrible party hats, the handmade banners, the cake that tilted precariously to the left, as they sang Happy Birthday out of tune, as Agatha wrestled Lucy onto the floor, as Baz pressed himself closer to Simon’s side, he didn’t even know what he could possibly wish for - he had everything he could want right here in front of him. Even though he was abrasive, clumsy, moody, and even though he wasn’t the Greatest Mage anymore, they were still all here and they still all loved him. And that, Simon thought, was more than enough.

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first year participating in the Countdown and I'm gonna try and write everyday, but uni is intense so i'm making no promises!
> 
> anyway, if you wanna leave a comment or a kudos they're much appreciated! especially let me know if there's something you think i forgot to tag! comments make me smile :)
> 
> i'm taking prompts! if you're interested please drop the prompt in the comments below. if you do send a prompt be prepared for me to take fifty years to fill it because school is so hard (or, i guess, uni now, lol), but i promise i'll try! come say hi on tumblr: [@maddy-does](https://maddy-does.tumblr.com/)
> 
> thanks for reading, have a wonderful existence.


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